Forum: Of Hosts & Guests

'Pup' photographed by Chris Parkes for William Martin, 2017

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Open Space presents its inaugural edition of Forum, a three-day event comprising artist performances, film screenings, talks and workshops. Forum: Of Hosts & Guests will run from Thursday 28 March – Saturday 30 March 2019 across three cultural venues in Bloomsbury, London: University College London (UCL), Mary Ward House and Pushkin House. Through diverse, site-specific responses to these spaces, six participating artists will explore ideas of hospitality, hierarchy, ritual and belonging.

Forum will feature: a collective performance by ​Adelaide Damoah ​that will see the artist use her own body to confront Ghana’s colonial history; a ​three-act food-art performance interrogating conceptions of class by ​Nora Silva and a screening of ​Amartey Golding​’s ​Chainmail film series exploring identity politics around race, gender and class followed by a live crit of his work led by his family and friends. Further works include: a life drawing class led by ​Henry Hussey​, ​addressing issues of an imperial and gendered gaze; an entrancing, colour saturated film of a Ghanaian market projected into a mirrored installation, activate​d ​with a drawing workshop led by ​Larry Amponsah​; and a participatory photoshoot by William Martin in collaboration with Charlotte Speechley, designed to invert the hierarchy of viewership and rituals of dressing.

Deriving its title from Albert Camus’s 1957 short story L’Hôte​, which translates into both ‘the host’ and ‘the guest’, ​Of Hosts & Guests ​invites artists and audiences to play with the duality of playing both of these roles. The programme ​will unfold as a journey through spaces, challenging social structures in pursuit of social connection and asking how we can establish a sense of home and community in the face of contested borders and endangered notions of belonging.

To book for our Forum: Of Hosts & Guests events please see our Open Space Eventbrite page here.

About Katherine Finerty Katherine Finerty (b. 1988 New York City) is an independent curator and writer focusing on research-based and socially-engaged practices, trans-local identity politics, and contemporary African art. Recently, she has worked with Gallery 1957, Ed Cross Fine Art, and Daata Editions as Guest Curator; curated artist projects for 1:54 Contemporary African Art Fair; and created an educational art programme for the City of London School. Katherine has previously worked as the curatorial assistant to Elvira Dyangani Ose for GIBCA 2015 (​Göteborg International Biennial for Contemporary Art​) and ​Biennale de Lubumbashi 2012/2013. ​She holds an MA in Curating Contemporary Art from the Royal College of Art (London), a BA in History of Art and Africana Studies from Cornell University (New York) and has studied History of Art at Pembroke College, University of Cambridge (Cambridge).

Image credits (from right to left):

William Martin, Pup (2017) Photo by Chris Parkes, Courtesy of the artist.